Insider Selling: Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Insider Sells $11,420.00 in Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) insider Carmen Amara sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.84, for a total transaction of $11,420.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 131,724 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,008,576.16. This trade represents a 0.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Carmen Amara also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, May 21st, Carmen Amara sold 500 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.35, for a total transaction of $11,175.00.

Yelp Stock Performance

NYSE YELP opened at $23.22 on Friday. Yelp Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.60 and a 1 year high of $37.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.74. The firm has a market cap of $1.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.60, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $25.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.35.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The local business review company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.04. Yelp had a net margin of 9.47% and a return on equity of 20.19%. The firm had revenue of $361.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $353.47 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Yelp Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on YELP shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Yelp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Yelp in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Robert W. Baird set a $28.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Yelp from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $27.88.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Yelp

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in YELP. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Yelp by 157.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $9,352,000 after buying an additional 154,612 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in Yelp by 0.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $2,828,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Yelp by 2.6% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $7,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,210 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Yelp by 21.8% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $1,458,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in Yelp during the first quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

Yelp Company Profile

Yelp is a digital platform that connects consumers with local businesses through user-generated reviews, ratings and multimedia content. The company’s flagship offerings include the Yelp website and mobile applications for iOS and Android, where users can search for and discover restaurants, shops, service providers and other points of interest. In addition to crowd-sourced reviews and photographs, Yelp provides business profile pages featuring hours, contact information, menus and direct messaging capabilities.

Yelp generates revenue primarily through advertising services sold to small and medium-sized enterprises.